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Collector profile “The Assassin Baby”

Brandon Moreno

Moreno is the rare modern champion with no Topps cardboard at all: he debuted in the UFC in October 2016, was cut in 2018, and Topps let the UFC licence lapse after 2020 without ever putting him in a set. His entire rookie year is therefore Panini, and it is compressed into 2021 — 2021 Panini Prizm UFC #38 in April, the flyweight title (and the first Mexican-born UFC championship) in June, his first certified autograph in Select in July, and the Chronicles and Immaculate rookie autographs in the autumn. Everything collectors chase for him is a 2021 Panini card, which makes the hunt unusually tidy and unusually competitive.

2021Rookie year
#38Rookie card
10Key cards
  • UFC debutOctober 1, 2016 · UFC Fight Night: Lineker vs. Dodson
  • DivisionsFlyweight · Bantamweight
  • FromTijuana, Baja California, Mexico
Rookie card#38
01

The rookie

#38
Rookie card

2021 Panini Prizm UFC #38

Moreno's first licensed card of any kind, from Panini's 'Debut Edition' Prizm UFC released 28 April 2021 — six weeks before he beat Deiveson Figueiredo to become the first Mexican-born UFC champion. Because Topps never issued him a card in five years of holding the licence, this is the whole of his pre-championship cardboard. It sits in the vertical half of the 200-card base set (100 vertical, 100 horizontal).

Commonly misidentified

Sellers routinely list Prizm #38 Silver and coloured parallels as 'the rookie' — they are parallels of #38. SportsCardsPro's structured 'Is Rookie Card' field disagrees with its own listing titles on the Select #96 page.

High confidence×1View sources & research
02

Key Moreno cards

10 cards chosen for significance, not completeness; autographs and numbered cards follow below.

03

Card history

Moreno is the rare modern champion with no Topps cardboard at all from his early career. He debuted in the UFC on 1 October 2016, was cut in 2018, fought his way back, and Topps let the UFC licence lapse after 2020 without ever putting him in a set — nine UFC bouts inside the Topps era and not one card. Collectibles.com's biography states it plainly: he 'debuted as a Rookie in 2021', and MMA Rookies lists nothing before that year. So there is no pre-Panini Moreno card to find, and anyone assuming a 2016-debut fighter must have Topps paper somewhere is looking for something that does not exist.

His entire rookie class is compressed into one Panini year, so the only question is which 2021 release came first — and that is settled by the calendar. 2021 Panini Prizm UFC, the Debut Edition, arrived on 28 April 2021 with him at #38 in the vertical half of the 200-card base set, six weeks before he submitted Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 263 to become the first Mexican-born UFC champion. MMA Rookies names it his true rookie card and SportsCardsPro flags it as one, with the full Prizm ladder behind it from Silver and Green through Red /275, Mojo /25, Gold /10, Octagon /8 and a Black 1/1. Select #96 (30 July) and the Chronicles Rated Rookie #26 (6 October) are the secondary rookies; the coloured parallels of #38 are frequently advertised as separate rookie cards, which they are not.

Prizm carried no Moreno signature in any of its four autograph sets, so his first certified autograph is Select UFC's Rookie Signatures #7, numbered to 149 and issued on 30 July 2021 — his first signed card, and his first as reigning champion. Select's three-tier base structure also gives him Concourse #96, Premier Level #160 and Octagonside #296, a three-card ladder of the same fighter at escalating scarcity, plus an Octagon Action Signatures card also numbered to 149. SportsCardsPro's data field reads 'Is Rookie Card: No' on the Concourse card while MMA Rookies and the listings on the same page call it a rookie, which is the one live disagreement in his catalogue.

Chronicles UFC on 6 October 2021 spread him across Panini's whole brand line-up in one product: the Donruss Rated Rookie #26, the design most non-MMA collectors recognise on sight, Contenders and Optic Contenders Rookie Season Tickets, a Chronicles Signatures #32, an Origins autograph, and the Optic Rated Rookies Signatures #RR-BMR — a signed Rated Rookie on chromium stock from a nine-fighter checklist that runs 27 cards in total, base plus Red and Gold /10, with the Gold the realistic top-end chase. Cardboard Connection's table shows a '1' against his Optic line where two other catalogues give RR-BMR, which reads as a row position rather than a printed number.

The inaugural Immaculate Collection UFC closed the year on 31 December 2021 treating him as a headline rookie: base #10 /65, Immaculate Ink #5 /99, a jumbo glove relic /27, the signed Rookie Memorabilia Autographs #102 /99 — his first card combining a signature with a swatch, with Red /25, Gold /10, Acetate /8 and Platinum 1/1 above it — and the Dual Autographs #10, Moreno and Figueiredo signing one card at 25 copies, the rivalry card for a series they fought four times between December 2020 and January 2023. Panini Instant also produced two print-to-order cards of him that year, #20 and #21, whose populations were fixed by their sales windows. Topps finally reached him eight years after his UFC debut: 2024 Topps Chrome UFC #30, released 20 March 2024, with the refractor ladder from Speckle /299 down to a SuperFractor 1/1, plus Marks of Champions, Tale of the Tape and Generation Now inserts. Everything else collectors chase for him is still a 2021 Panini card.

Sources for every paragraph

04

Autographs

5 certified autographs in the archive.

05

Card eras

2016–2020
The Topps gap

Moreno fought nine UFC bouts in this window and appeared in none of Topps' UFC products, which ran through 2020. Collectibles.com's biography states plainly that he 'debuted as a Rookie in 2021', and MMA Rookies lists nothing before 2021 — so there is no pre-Panini Moreno card to find.

2021 (April)
First card — Prizm Debut Edition

2021 Panini Prizm UFC, released 28 April 2021, gave him card #38 in the 200-card base set. It is his first licensed card of any kind and the card MMA Rookies designates his 'true rookie'.

2021 (June)
First Mexican-born UFC champion

He submitted Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 263 on 12 June 2021 to take the flyweight title. Panini Instant UFC carries two 2021 Moreno print-to-order cards, #20 and #21, from his championship year.

2021 (July)
First autograph

2021 Panini Select UFC (30 July 2021) put him in all three base tiers — Concourse #96, Premier Level #160, Octagonside #296 — and produced Rookie Signatures #7 numbered /149, the earliest Moreno signature in a licensed product. Select also carries an Octagon Action Signatures #10 /149 of him (Cardboard Connection, single source).

2021 (October)
Chronicles rookie run

Chronicles UFC (6 October 2021) spread him across Panini's brands: Donruss Rated Rookie #26, Contenders and Optic Contenders Rookie Season Ticket, Chronicles Signatures #32, Origins Autographs #39, and the Optic Rated Rookies Signatures #RR-BMR with Red and Gold /10 parallels.

2021 (December)
Immaculate, as a champion

The inaugural Immaculate Collection UFC (31 December 2021) treated him as a headline rookie: base #10 /65, Rookie Memorabilia Autographs #102 /99, Immaculate Ink #5 /99, Jumbo Memorabilia Gloves #53 /27 and a Moreno/Figueiredo Dual Autograph #10 /25.

2024–2026
Topps, finally

Topps regained the licence and put him in 2024 Topps Chrome UFC at #30, with Marks of Champions #MOC-BMO, Tale of the Tape #TFT-1 and Generation Now #GNW-15. Collectibles.com shows him continuing into 2026 Topps Midnight and Stadium Club UFC.

06

Rookie parallels

Base
Unnumbered
Silver
High confidence
Green
High confidence
Red
/275
High confidence
Blue
/199
High confidence
Purple
/149
High confidence
07

Sets

Where Moreno's key cards come from.

08

Buying & wanted

Wanted by FightCardboard
  • 012021 Panini Prizm UFC #38 in a numbered colour — Gold /10, Octagon /8 or the Black 1/1
  • 022021 Panini Select UFC Rookie Signatures #7 /149, his first certified autograph
  • 032021 Panini Chronicles UFC Optic Rated Rookies Signatures #RR-BMR, especially the Gold /10
  • 042021 Panini Immaculate Collection UFC Dual Autographs #10 Moreno/Figueiredo /25

Offer one

Available here

Nothing from this archive in the vault right now. Selling one?

Sources & research Verified×3High confidence×8Probable×5

Every factual claim on this page, the evidence behind it, and an honest confidence level. Where sources disagree the disagreement is kept, not quietly resolved.

High confidence

Brandon Moreno's rookie card: 2021 Panini Prizm UFC #38 — Brandon Moreno.

Moreno has no card before 2021, so the rookie question is only about which 2021 Panini issue came first. 2021 Panini Prizm UFC released 28 April 2021 (Cardboard Connection), ahead of Select (30 July), Chronicles (6 October) and Immaculate (31 December). Cardboard Connection's base checklist has him at #38, SportsCardsPro's card page confirms #38 and flags it a rookie card, and MMA Rookies names '2021 Panini Prizm UFC #38' his true rookie card while listing Select #96 and Chronicles #26 as the secondary RCs.

High confidence

Moreno is the rare modern champion with no Topps cardboard at all from his early career. He debuted in the UFC on 1 October 2016, was cut in 2018, fought his way back, and Topps let the UFC licence lapse after 2020 without ever putting him in a set — nine UFC bouts inside the Topps era and not one card. Collectibles.com's biography states it plainly: he 'debuted as a Rookie in 2021', and MMA Rookies lists nothing before that year. So there is no pre-Panini Moreno card to find, and anyone assuming a 2016-debut fighter must have Topps paper somewhere is looking for something that does not exist.

High confidence

His entire rookie class is compressed into one Panini year, so the only question is which 2021 release came first — and that is settled by the calendar. 2021 Panini Prizm UFC, the Debut Edition, arrived on 28 April 2021 with him at #38 in the vertical half of the 200-card base set, six weeks before he submitted Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 263 to become the first Mexican-born UFC champion. MMA Rookies names it his true rookie card and SportsCardsPro flags it as one, with the full Prizm ladder behind it from Silver and Green through Red /275, Mojo /25, Gold /10, Octagon /8 and a Black 1/1. Select #96 (30 July) and the Chronicles Rated Rookie #26 (6 October) are the secondary rookies; the coloured parallels of #38 are frequently advertised as separate rookie cards, which they are not.

High confidence

Prizm carried no Moreno signature in any of its four autograph sets, so his first certified autograph is Select UFC's Rookie Signatures #7, numbered to 149 and issued on 30 July 2021 — his first signed card, and his first as reigning champion. Select's three-tier base structure also gives him Concourse #96, Premier Level #160 and Octagonside #296, a three-card ladder of the same fighter at escalating scarcity, plus an Octagon Action Signatures card also numbered to 149. SportsCardsPro's data field reads 'Is Rookie Card: No' on the Concourse card while MMA Rookies and the listings on the same page call it a rookie, which is the one live disagreement in his catalogue.

High confidence

Chronicles UFC on 6 October 2021 spread him across Panini's whole brand line-up in one product: the Donruss Rated Rookie #26, the design most non-MMA collectors recognise on sight, Contenders and Optic Contenders Rookie Season Tickets, a Chronicles Signatures #32, an Origins autograph, and the Optic Rated Rookies Signatures #RR-BMR — a signed Rated Rookie on chromium stock from a nine-fighter checklist that runs 27 cards in total, base plus Red and Gold /10, with the Gold the realistic top-end chase. Cardboard Connection's table shows a '1' against his Optic line where two other catalogues give RR-BMR, which reads as a row position rather than a printed number.

High confidence

The inaugural Immaculate Collection UFC closed the year on 31 December 2021 treating him as a headline rookie: base #10 /65, Immaculate Ink #5 /99, a jumbo glove relic /27, the signed Rookie Memorabilia Autographs #102 /99 — his first card combining a signature with a swatch, with Red /25, Gold /10, Acetate /8 and Platinum 1/1 above it — and the Dual Autographs #10, Moreno and Figueiredo signing one card at 25 copies, the rivalry card for a series they fought four times between December 2020 and January 2023. Panini Instant also produced two print-to-order cards of him that year, #20 and #21, whose populations were fixed by their sales windows. Topps finally reached him eight years after his UFC debut: 2024 Topps Chrome UFC #30, released 20 March 2024, with the refractor ladder from Speckle /299 down to a SuperFractor 1/1, plus Marks of Champions, Tale of the Tape and Generation Now inserts. Everything else collectors chase for him is still a 2021 Panini card.

Probable

2021 Panini Select UFC Rookie Signatures #7 — Brandon Moreno.

Probable

2021 Panini Chronicles UFC Chronicles Signatures #32 — Brandon Moreno.

Probable

2021 Panini Immaculate Collection UFC Rookie Memorabilia Autographs #102 — Brandon Moreno.

Probable

2021 Panini Immaculate Collection UFC Dual Autographs #10 — Brandon Moreno / Deiveson Figueiredo.

Verified

2024 Topps Chrome UFC #30 — Brandon Moreno.